Algeria

France's Undeclared War

Martin Evans

Traces the origins of the Algerian war from the initial French invasion in 1830

Looks at the war both on the ground in Algeria and how developments in France affected the course of the war

Re-examines the war to argue that it was the Socialist led Republican front of 1956-7 which represents the defining moment in the war

Draws upon both previously classified archival sources as well as new oral testimony to highlight the clash of values between the Republican Front in France and Algerian nationalism

Algeria

France's Undeclared War

Martin Evans

Description

Invaded in 1830, populated by one million settlers who co-existed uneasily with nine million Arabs and Berbers , Algeria was different from other French colonies because it was administered as an integral part of France, in theory no different from Normandy or Brittany. The depth and scale of the colonization process explains why the Algerian War of 1954 to 1962 was one of the longest and most violent of the decolonization struggles.

An undeclared war in the sense that there was no formal beginning of hostilities, the war produced huge tensions that brought down four governments, ended the Fourth Republic in 1958, and mired the French army in accusations of torture and mass human rights abuses. In carefully re-examining the origins and consequences of the conflict, Martin Evans argues that it was the Socialist led Republican Front, in power from January 1956 until May 1957, which was the defining moment in the war. Predicated on the belief in the universal civilizing mission of the Fourth Republic, coupled with the conviction that Algerian nationalism was feudal and religiously fanatical in character, the Republican Front dramatically intensified the war in the spring of 1956.

Drawing upon previously classified archival sources as well as new oral testimonies, this book underlines the conflict of values between the Republican Front and Algerian nationalism, explaining how this clash produced patterns of thought and action, such as the institutionalization of torture and the raising of pro-French Muslim militias, which tragically polarized choices and framed all subsequent stages of the conflict.

Algeria

France's Undeclared War

Martin Evans

Author Information

Martin Evans is Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Portsmouth. He is the author of Memory of Resistance: French Opposition to the Algerian War, co-author (with Emmanuel Godin) of France 1815 to 2003, and co-author (with John Phillips) of Algeria: Anger of the Dispossessed. In 2008 Memory of Resistance was translated into French and serialised in the Algerian press. He has written for the Independent, the Times Higher Education Supplement, BBC History Magazine and the Guardian, and is a regular contributor to History Today. In 2007-08 he was a Leverhulme Senior Research Fellow at the British Academy.

Algeria

France's Undeclared War

Martin Evans

Reviews and Awards

"A carefully nuanced history of the Algerian War...This highly detailed, well-written, well-researched book will likely be the definitive history of the Algerian War for many years to come." --CHOICE

"Fascinating insights into the origins of Algerian independence." --History Today

"Algeria combines excellent scholarship with crossover appeal for a general audience. While preserving academic rigor, the book has the clarity and narrative force to draw in general readers as well as lower-level students... A fine example of academic work with ambitious scope and a robust allegiance to historical justice" --African Studies Quarterly

"Algeria: France's Undeclared War will interest specialists and nonspecialists alike, and it will be essential for teachers of North African and French colonial history."-M. Kathryn Edwards, African Studies Review

Algeria

France's Undeclared War

Martin Evans

From Our Blog

By Martin Evans On 17 October 1961 at 5.30 am 30,000 unarmed Algerians converged on the centre of Paris in the light rain, flooding in from the surrounding shanty towns and poor suburbs ' Nanterre, Colombe and Gennevilliers. Mostly made up of young men and women, but also a scattering of older people and some mothers with young children, the demonstration was organised by the National Liberation Front (FLN) which had been engaged in war for Algerian national independence against France since November 1954.

By Martin Evans Frantz Fanon died of leukaemia on 6 December 1961 at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, USA where he had sought treatment for his cancer. At Fanon's request, his body was returned to Algeria and buried with full military honours by the Algerian National Army of Liberation, shortly after the publication of his most influential work, The Wretched of the Earth.

By Martin Evans On 11 January 1992 the Algerian President, the white-haired sixty-one year old Chadli Bendjedid, announced live on television that he was standing down as head of state with immediate effect. Nervous and ill at ease, the president read out a brief prepared statement. In it he explained his decision as a necessary one. Why? Because the democratic process which he had put in place two years earlier could no longer guarantee law and order on the streets.

2012 marks the 50th anniversary of Algerian independence. Martin Evans, author of Algeria: France's Undeclared War, talks about the complexities of Algerian colonial history and the country's fight for independence in this new video.

By Martin Evans On 5 July 1962, Algeria achieved independence from France after an eight-year-long war ' one of the longest and bloodiest episodes in the whole decolonisation process. An undeclared war in the sense there was no formal beginning of hostilities, the intensity of this violence is partly explained by the fact that Algeria (invaded in 1830) was an integral part of France, but also by the presence of European settlers who in 1954, numbered one million as against the nine million Arabo-Berber population.